If you are looking for an enjoyable outing on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, join us on Sunday, Sept. 12 for a hike on the trail. We'll hike 4 miles or so, (the group will decide!) and enjoy the views and mushrooms along the route. We might even see some fall color! Join JoAnn Parks on this invigorating fall hike, our last official "Sunday Hike" of the year.

Meet at 1 PM at the Chippewa Moraine Visitor Center. Bring water and repellent.

Trail Improvement Opportunity, Saturday, Sept. 18

September is positively grand for trail work, and it's a great chance to clear out the storm-tossed branches or exuberant growth. We'll meet at 9:30 AM at the Chippewa Moraine Visitor Center, and spend the day cleaning, lopping, and sprucing up a section of trail. We'd love to have you along as well. This is pleasant work, mostly lopping and throwing branches off the trail, but be prepared to tangle with blackberry canes! That means wear long pants, long sleeves, and work gloves and sturdy footwear. Mosquitoes have been plentiful, so plan for that, and bring a lunch and water if you plan to stay into the afternoon.

If you can't make this opportunity, we have another day planned for Saturday, Oct. 16.

If you plan to come, please let us know with an email to chapter@iatchippewa.org so we can plan our day accordingly. Please indicate how long you plan to stay. Also, please note that helpers under 18 must have a signed release form.

Chapter Meeting, Monday, Sept. 20

Chapter members gather every other month to plan, choose, evaluate, and otherwise decide what and how our members will be working on. Join us on Monday evening, Sept. 20, at 6:00 PM at the Chippewa Falls Public Library to sort it all out. A special focus will be finalizing details for the fall color hike.

Parade of Colors Fall Hike, Saturday, Oct. 2

The Fall Color Hike has been our major trail outreach event every year, and this year it takes on a new twist! Video crews will be here to film for a future Discover Wisconsin program about the trail in northwest Wisconsin. (If you prefer not to be caught on camera, you needn't worry, so be sure to come anyway.)

The event has grown over the years and is always popular. Heck, they even come when it rains! So plan to be with us, one way or another.

We'd love to have you come and hike, but consider volunteering to greet, shuttle, or bring treats. All are needed, and very much appreciated by all the hikers. If you can do any of these, please send an email letting us know what you'd like to do. Just send it to chapter@iatchippewa.org.

The details of the hike remain the same as in other years: Gather the family or your hiking pals and come to the Chippewa Moraine Visitor Center and be ready to start anytime between 9 and 11 AM. You pick your preferred distance (6,4,2,1 miles) and we'll design a personalized hike for you and deliver you to your starting point. You get to walk back, enjoy the trail and the fall scenery, and end up at the Visitor Center where refreshments (and your car) will be waiting.

Long-term Trail Reroute

Several segments of the trail in our county are on land that is privately owned, and we truly appreciate the generosity of the landowners who've made such a long-term commitment to the trail. Unfortunately, these arrangements are not permanent, and sometimes a landowner's circumstances change such that they no longer wish to host the trail on their land. That was the case with one of our landowners recently. We temporarily rerouted the trail last fall at the landowner's request. Now we have made that reroute long-term.

On our last trail improvement day volunteers removed signs and markings from the former segment and installed long-term markings on what had been the temporary reroute. Over time, we'll get the maps changed as well, but will also be looking for a more satisfactory route, one which doesn't require as much road walking!

The segment that has been changed formerly ran from Hwy E toward 245th Ave. The segment is still there, but the trailhead has been moved from the east side of Hwy E to the north side of 245th Ave, 0.92 mile east of Hwy E. Look for a post with yellow sign on the north side of the road. Roadside parking is limited. The map and explanation is at our iceagetrail.org web page. Enlarge the map to zero in on the area around Hwy E, and click on the reroute symbol for a detailed description.

New Shirts In Town

There are some new shirts in town! Just in time for cool weather, our sweatshirts and hoodies are back in stock at the Chippewa Moraine Visitor Center. We also have a new pistaschio T-shirt in a ladies style cut. If you were looking for a T-shirt and your size was missing, chances are it is back in stock. So plan to check out the new shirts (and other great merchandise) on your next trip to the Chippewa Moraine when you come to take advantage of the wonderful fall hiking weather. All Ice Age Trail merchandise that we sell has a discounted price for members, and the proceeds enable us to build, maintain, and support the Ice Age Trail.